St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-04
A LIGHT OF TIE PERSIAN HAREM.


A LIGHT OF TIE PERSIAN HAREM.
/ did of Turkey, however; as | was in
the Shah'S dominion some months, and
rode the bicycle before the ladies OF
several harems. En- bracing the choicest
buds culled from the rose garden OF
Iranian beauty, the harems of a Persian
nOblcman sometimes contain very
lovely creatures. Oriental beauty
probably reaches its greatest perfection
in Persia now that the Caucasus is no
longer what it was before the Russian
| occupation.
The Persian ideal of a beautiful face
is very large black eyes, with an oval
babyish face. The Persian critic of
female beauty says 1.-The larger the eyes
in proportion to the face, the greater
the degree of beauty" Judging from
this standard, L think l once had the
privilege of. gazing upon the highest
perfection of Oriental lOvelnesS. |
had arranged with a Persian gentle
MN. who had been entertaining me
witt kalianS and tchai, to show the
bicycle to the ladies of his harem. The
TRUSTING place was to be inside a walled
garden adjacent to the haremlik, where
the tamOSha could come Off quietly with
out outsiders knowing anything about
it, for social etiquette fOrbidS the ladies'
of the harem from taking that degree
of interest in the affairs of a male biped
outside. Pretty soon there came trip
ping through little wicket-gate about
dozen ladies', attended by a dozen OF
swarthy Ethiopian eunuchS. The in
door costume of the Persian harem is
pretty much like the costume of the
ballet-dancer as seen on our spectacular
Of Thn,, !,
and went to the Gaiety theater. London.
to witness the ballet. his royal Oriental
nibS was filled with establishment to
find those light-heeled nymphs of the
fOOt-lights arrayed very much like the
ladies of his harem back home in Tehe-
ran. He supposed. at first, that they
were thus appareled out of compliment
to himself, In addition to this highly
Interesting costume, however. these
particular ladies had thrown carelessly
about them, tiimSy Shawl-like gar
ment.
After riding the bicycle about the
garde II walks for them, they clustered
around TO examine the bicycle-and me
too. The women of Kukuanaland were
not whit more inquiSitive about Capt.
Goods white legs king SOlOmOn's
Mines than these black-eyed h0uris of
the Persian harem were about the first
Ferenghi they had ever had an OppOr-
tunity of ScrutiniZing so closely. They
were cOquettiSh. too, these ''grOwn-up.
irresponsible children" and they lifted
their face-VeilS and favored me with no
end of bewitching smiles. They thought
it rare fun to let the stranger from far
off FrankeStau gaze upon their Oriental
loneliness.
The flower of this interesting flock was
a young creature not more than fifteen
summers old; her glorious black eyes
seemed to cover well nigh half her soft
childish features. And yet, as if this
were not sufficient, black lines were
Skillfully drawn to make them look still
larger, still more languiShing. Her
complexion was a clean olive, with a
flush of warm sunset on the cheeks.
Her beauty, however, was entirely pas
sive; purely animal: there was no in
tellectuality there whatever: ten years
later or by the time she reached her
twenty-fifth summer, she would already
be old and faded. The beauty of Persia
is very II ansitory; at an age when the
Western rose is seen at its best the
morning glory of the Orient has already
withered and died.
There are lovely women in India, too,
Notwithstanding compilations almost as
dark as mahogany. The most lovely
women ] saw in India were the Puma
bee maidens north of Delhi. Ozark but
cOmely" are the daughters of the war
like and magnificent SikhS and Jatni
bellies of MOOltOn and Lahore. One sees
them reclining beneath the sacred BAN
yam groves, or StrOlling beneath the
tOddy palms, or wandering about the
walks of the old MOgul Emperor Shah
jehau'S Shalamar mango gardens, VERT
able duSky Ewes for beauty. Straight
as arrows, yet of will0wy form and
gracefulneSS. they are splendid speci-
mems of tropical female beauty. They
dress picturesquely and gracefully, too,
though somewhat barbarous, overload
ing their ears, fingers, toes, arms and
ankles with jewelry, not forgetting
large ornamental rings in the nose. A
group of these dusky charmers in all
the bravery of their jewels and pictur-
eSQue costumes, makes neVer-tO-be-
forgotten picture if seen wandering
about the dazzling white marble halls of
some old mOgul imperial palace or mag
nificent mausoleum, like the Tai Mahal
at Agra.
South of Delhi the women scarcely
compare with the PunjabeeS, but lovely
girls are sometimes seen in troups of
Nautcn dancers. Rch and powerful
Rajahs has been known to Succumb to
the chorus of graceful NautchneeS and
notwithstanding the shady character of
their profession eXalt them TO rank and
importance. In the Nautch girl and her
graceful art one sees the extreme type
of Oriental suppleness and grace of
form welded to the witching arts of
Eastern TerpsichOre. Even in far
Cathay saw women that, in spite of
Oblique and MOngolian phiz might
truly be called beautiful. In the foot
hills of the Maeling mountains remem-
Der seeing golden lily that would be
called lovely in any assembly in the
world. There was Just enough
ObliQuity in her fine dark eyes
to impart an expression of de-
lightful archneSs, her lips were the
most perfect of Cupid's bows. and just
the faintest glow of carmine rounded